Developing High-Quality Family Invovlement Programs in Early Childhood Settings

1. Head Start is a national, federal funded, community-based program for chidren from families with low incames and their parents.

2.One of the most accurate predictors of achievement in school is the extent to which parents believe they can be key resources in their children's education and become involved at school and in the community.

3. An Early Childhood Program is a community of families , teachers, and neighborhood residents accepting mutual responsibility for sustaining enhancing relationships that promote children's success.

4.some road blocks to establishing parent involvement in Early Childhood Pragrams areteachers comcerns over the ability of parent s to maintain confidentiality to not knowing how effectively recruit, user, or supervise volunteers. Parent soften feel they do not have tome to volunteer or do not know what they can do to help. Teachers often feel they do not have time to prepare activities for volunteers.

5. Some ways to establish parent involvement are develop a short survey or meet with other staff to determine where, besides the classroom, parents can make contributions and in what ways.

6.Cultural differences can be promoted by asking parents to hep create signs that hang on each entrance of the schol and each classroom that says "Welcome" in all the languags spoken by families in the program.

7. The benifit of having a well-planned oreintationis that it eases anxiety and confusion, alleviate fears, and increases the chances of parents maintaining a long-term relationship with the program.

8. A good orentation should include volunteer job descriptions and expectations, how volunteers are supervised, and how volunteers should check in and record their hours.

9. Parents that can not come into the classroom can design and update the center's webpage, create a newsletter, design forms and stationary. other tasks a family might do at home include creating homemade learning games and toys for the classroom, reading and tape-recording stories or music, sewing costumes and uniforms for the dramatic play area, of making curtains for a puppet theater.

10. An exploration kit is a kit that contain videos, books, learning toys or games, and index cards with parent-child activity ideas that focus on a particular topic.